Chapter 94
After dinner, Haruto sat cross-legged with his back against the wall and took out one of his magic books to continue studying.
Just then, faint footsteps reached his ears.
He turned and saw a party of adventurers approaching.
The man leading them had curly hair and dark skin.
Haruto recognized him immediately—Kabru, a friendly-looking man with a rather calculating side.
The people following him were naturally the rest of his adventuring party.
Kabru’s group soon noticed Haruto sitting alone against the wall.
Normally, adventurers who crossed paths in the dungeon left one another alone.
However, Kabru glanced around the deserted surroundings and grew more serious when he realized Haruto had no companions.
He paused before walking directly toward him.
Kabru’s companions stopped as well and looked at their leader in confusion, though he offered no explanation.
Seeing him approach, Haruto put away his magic book, rose to his feet, and waited.
Kabru stopped a short distance away and extended his right hand.
"Hello. I’m Kabru."
Haruto was not sure what he wanted, but he shook the offered hand and introduced himself in return.
"Suzuki Haruto."
Kabru searched his memory.
He had never heard that name among the island’s more famous adventurers.
After choosing his words carefully, he asked, "Haruto-san, are you truly all right exploring the dungeon’s fourth floor alone?"
The fourth floor could already be considered part of the dungeon’s deeper levels.
Kabru’s party would not have ventured this far themselves if they had not been pursuing the people who had stolen their treasure.
Haruto looked at him and finally understood why Kabru had approached.
With a faint smile, he answered in complete seriousness, "I haven’t had any problems. The environment down here is actually quite pleasant."
Kabru hesitated.
His lips moved several times, but he seemed unsure how to continue.
Strictly speaking, his own party had taken a considerable risk by descending to the fourth floor.
Moreover, anyone capable of reaching this level alone was clearly no ordinary adventurer.
Telling Haruto to turn back would be presumptuous, yet Kabru still could not help worrying when he saw him traveling by himself.
Rinsha understood what Kabru was thinking.
Seeing that he could not find the right way to say it, she sighed and stepped forward.
"Kabru is worried about your safety," she told Haruto directly.
"A proper adventuring party needs members capable of handling many different situations. Exploring the fourth floor alone without a team is incredibly dangerous."
Dungeon exploration was not simply a matter of gathering as many people as possible, but traveling alone was equally unwise.
The safest arrangement was usually a party of five or six.
It needed warriors and knights to hold the front line, mages capable of offensive spells, healing, and exorcism, as well as a specialist skilled at detecting traps and opening locks.
Haruto, however, had none of those companions.
Going this far alone was undeniably reckless.
Haruto looked between Kabru and Rinsha, then answered more sincerely this time.
"Thank you both for your concern, but I’m fairly confident in my abilities. I should be able to handle the dangers within this dungeon."
The monsters here posed little real threat to him.
Even if he encountered Thistle or the demon known as the Winged Lion and discovered he could not win, he could always leave this world through the World Gate.
Seeing Haruto’s confidence and the seriousness in his expression, Kabru decided not to press the matter.
Besides, this dungeon followed unusual rules. Even if someone died inside, resurrection remained possible.
Kabru’s own party had already experienced it firsthand.
If Haruto accepted the danger, there was little more they could say.
Kabru then asked whether he had encountered a four-person adventuring party consisting of a tall-man, an elf, a dwarf, and a half-foot.
When Haruto said he had not seen them, Kabru bid him farewell and led his companions away to continue their search.
Haruto naturally knew they were looking for Laios’s party.
He had not lied, either.
He truly had not encountered Laios and the others anywhere on the fourth floor.
In fact, Haruto knew Kabru’s party had reached this level before them. Searching for Laios now was completely pointless.
There was no reason to explain that, however. Doing so would only lead to troublesome questions.
Once Kabru’s party disappeared into the distance, Haruto took out his magic book again and resumed studying.
In the quiet waterside ruins, the soft rustling of turning pages sounded unusually clear.
After an unknown amount of time, exhaustion gradually caught up with him.
Haruto put the book away and fell into a deep sleep.
The night passed without incident.
...
Haruto awoke the following morning feeling thoroughly refreshed.
For breakfast, he simply roasted a large slab of Sea Serpent meat.
Once he had eaten his fill, he resumed his search for monster ingredients.
After swimming for a while, a clear and melodious song drifted across the water.
The ethereal voice was soothing enough to reach deep into the heart, yet it also carried a strange, irresistible pull.
Haruto’s mind wavered, and for a moment, he instinctively wanted to follow the song and discover its source.
He snapped back to his senses almost immediately.
"A mermaid’s song."
Haruto already knew that mermaid songs possessed powerful hypnotic properties, but experiencing one personally still surprised him.
Rather than retreating, his curiosity only grew.
He had never seen a mermaid before.
Their singing was also genuinely beautiful—beautiful enough that Haruto briefly considered capturing one and raising it himself.
He had not decided whether he would actually do that, but he certainly wanted to see them first.
Following the song, Haruto increased his swimming speed.
Before long, a low, crumbling structure protruding from the lake came into view.
Two graceful mermaids sat upon its wall, their heads raised as they sang.
Haruto was about to move closer when a loud, rough male voice suddenly joined the song.
The intrusive singing clashed horribly with the mermaids’ clear voices, shattering the enchanting atmosphere.
Startled, the two mermaids immediately stopped.
They cast wary glances toward the source of the noise, flipped backward into the water, and vanished beneath the surface in an instant.
Haruto could not help feeling disappointed that he had failed to hear the song to its end.
After composing himself, he turned toward the owner of the coarse voice.
Laios stood there looking deeply disappointed, while Chilchuck shook his head helplessly beside him.
Several familiar figures were also floating on the water nearby.
Kabru and the members of his party!